Tonita Foster |
Tonita Foster Law Office Law Firm of Tonita Foster This firm is lazy, dishonest, unfair, and very forgetful. They are incompetent so do not retain th |
15th of Jun, 2011 by User401072 |
This letter is regarding the lazy, dishonest, unfair and inattentive business practices we received from the Law Firm of Tonita Foster. When we first called for representation, we were quoted $2,000 for services pertaining to my divorce. Once I explained that my wife was having an affair, the price more than doubled and escalated to $5000. Due to the amount of trial and legal experience Mrs. Foster possessed, we decided to continue with the retainer. Immediately after we paid to retain, she told us that the emaills alone were not enough to prove adultery yet she charged us the $5,000 anyway instead of the previously quoted $2,000. That was the one and only time I spoke to Mrs. Foster until the day of court where we only spoke to her as we walked into the court house. She took no time to confer with us on planning a strategy to build a case before going in front of a judge. We waited patiently for her to consult with us only to discover that she and my wife's attorney had already went to the judge's chambers. When Mrs. Foster returned to deliver the ruling from the judge, I was upset and disgusted and thought it was poor service that she would attempt to represent someone without knowing their full intent. Upon Mrs. Foster's return, she proceeded to yell at me in the lobby of the courthouse in front of my wife and her attorney. During the discussion of a visitation schedule, my wife's attorney told my mom to "shut up" and Mrs. Foster said nothing. Mrs. Foster instead looked at me in shock as if I were to say something when it was she who was being paid to handle the situation. After that, we went into a conference room to talk about what the next step was and I happened to have the emails from my wife which she read at the time we retained her. When she reviewed them 'again' she stated "oh, this is good stuff, we're gonna have to use this." These were the exact same emails that she used to write the divorce papers that were served to my wife. Is she so busy that she had forgotten already? Am I just a case number as opposed to a client? Did she not even take the time to review the documents before court to ensure my exact wishes were going to be represented? She made copies of everything the day we retained her with the exception of the latest facts and information that we had compiled and felt was imperative for the judge to hear. We were not aware that every phone call and email was being assessed a fee. We didn't find out about the fee for correspondence until the day the bill was faxed over to us. Many times I would call and ask the receptionist questions only to get an unsatisfactory, generic, watered down answer. Other times she would tell me she had to speak with Mrs. Foster yet they charged me for both the incoming and outgoing call. Therefore I was paying for a lot of "I'm not really sure, let me find out" phone calls. Once we received an itemized bill, we reviewed it and promptly informed the receptionist that we felt we were being unfairly and unjustly charged for services. We stated what we felt was a fair price due to the lack of time and effort that was dedicated to the case which showed in in her ill preparedness. Our response to the bill and a copy of it is enclosed as well. If the $5,000 was the expected amount to take us through the entire process of the divorce which would last over a year due to fact that we have a child, why would she charge us $2,748 for less than a month? She had agreed to give a refund in the amount of $3,000 which is stated in the enclosed emails until she found out about the reviews that we posted on the internet voicing our opinion so that no one else would fall victim to their lazy, unskilled and unfair business practices. We made them aware that if our expected refund wasn't given that we were going to post the appropriate reviews online, submit a letter to the BBB, and dispute the charges on our credit card. As a business owner of 3 corporations myself, I wanted to give ample opportunity to justify the situation before any negative actions were taken against the company. We were left no other option but to retain a more competent attorney who has done more the first 2 days we had him then Mrs. Foster's firm did over the entire course she was our council. We had a court date scheduled for 3 weeks away that I wasn't even aware of until my new attorney brought it to my attention. When I called and asked about it, the receptionist told me "there is no court date that I know of." If you notice on the price sheet I was charged for that information as well which was actually incorrect information. We feel that since we only visited and talked with Mrs. Foster one time, never had her representation in front of a judge, that we shouldn't be charged $2,252 for phone calls, and emails. We have discussed this with other family law attorneys and they feel that this is an exaggerated amount as well due to her lack of attention to detail involving our case. With that said, we are willing to pay $1,000 for services rendered which is more than fair since we nothing was done in our defense and we had to pay another attorney to do what Mrs Foster should have already done. |
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